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- Howard Kurtz attempts to figure out the "Obama Conundrum": "Obviously, Obama would be riding higher with a 7 percent unemployment rate than the one just below double digits. But it's also clear that, for whatever combination of reasons, the Nobel Prize winner has had trouble connecting with much of the public." As the man says, obviously. The only conundrum here is why so many columnists are incapable of being satisfied that it's the economy, stupid.
- Ah, but we have even greater "failure to connect" theories to deal with. Aaron David Miller deduces that Obama has failed to divine the public mood and thus fulfill his destiny as a great president. Then there's the reliably unpersuasive Andrew Malcolm, who goes all in on the theory that Obama must be totally incompetent because his party controls big majorities in Congress.
- Byron York argues that Barack Obama has himself to blame for his "Muslim problem": "Barack Obama has been reluctant to discuss his Muslim roots. Except, of course, when he’s been eager to discuss his Muslim roots. And roots aside, to the outside observer, Obama sometimes doesn’t appear to practice any faith at all. Put it all together, and is it any wonder the public is confused?" Gee, I wonder where this "confusion" comes from? And, more important, it's an unspoken prerequisite for high office in America to profess adherence to the Christian faith. It's just that Obama is being held to a different standard than past presidents.
- Matt Yglesias explains why he initially supported the Iraq War and identifies the source of deceit: "The point is that this wasn’t really a series of erroneous judgments about Iraq, it was a series of erroneous judgments about how to think about the world and who deserves to be taken seriously and under which circumstances" (italics in original). Myself, I never supported the Iraq War because the premise simply made no sense. Indeed, the more convoluted and numerous the reasons for going to war became, the more obvious it was that this was a war of choice.
- Remainders: Undoubtedly, "Iran will have nukes in one year!" is destined to become enshrined truth for neocon lunatics; Jon Chait explains why "do nothing" is an unacceptable option during an economic catastrophe; and when are we going to stop pretending that mosque locations have nothing to do with 9/11?
--Mori Dinauer
